Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

or

Comment: Owner's name inside. Cover, binding and pages are in good condition. Pages clean; no writing or highlighting found. Amazon Preferred. Eligible for FREE SHIPPING!

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you’re running an entire company or in your first management job.

Larry Bossidy is one of the world’s most acclaimed CEOs, a man with few peers who has a track record for delivering results. Ram Charan is a legendary advisor to senior executives and boards of directors, a man with unparalleled insight into why some companies are successful and others are not. Together they’ve pooled their knowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered that people in business need today.

After a long, stellar career with General Electric, Larry Bossidy transformed AlliedSignal into one of the world’s most admired companies and was named CEO of the year in 1998 by Chief Executive magazine. Accomplishments such as 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more didn’t just happen; they resulted from the consistent practice of the discipline of execution: understanding how to link together people, strategy, and operations, the three core processes of every business.

Leading these processes is the real job of running a business, not formulating a “vision” and leaving the work of carrying it out to others. Bossidy and Charan show the importance of being deeply and passionately engaged in an organization and why robust dialogues about people, strategy, and operations result in a business based on intellectual honesty and realism.

The leader’s most important job—selecting and appraising people—is one that should never be delegated. As a CEO, Larry Bossidy personally makes the calls to check references for key hires. Why? With the right people in the right jobs, there’s a leadership gene pool that conceives and selects strategies that can be executed. People then work together to create a strategy building block by building block, a strategy in sync with the realities of the marketplace, the economy, and the competition. Once the right people and strategy are in place, they are then linked to an operating process that results in the implementation of specific programs and actions and that assigns accountability. This kind of effective operating process goes way beyond the typical budget exercise that looks into a rearview mirror to set its goals. It puts reality behind the numbers and is where the rubber meets the road.

Putting an execution culture in place is hard, but losing it is easy. In July 2001 Larry Bossidy was asked by the board of directors of Honeywell International (it had merged with AlliedSignal) to return and get the company back on track. He’s been putting the ideas he writes about in Execution to work in real time.

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; actually getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute.

Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job. While failure in today's business environment is often attributed to other causes, Bossidy and Charan argue that the biggest obstacle to success is the absence of execution. They point out that without execution, breakthrough thinking on managing change breaks down, and they emphasize the fact that execution is a discipline to learn, not merely the tactical side of business. Supporting this with stories of the "execution difference" being won (EDS) and lost (Xerox and Lucent), the authors describe the building blocks--leaders with the right behaviors, a culture that rewards execution, and a reliable system for having the right people in the right jobs--that need to be in place to manage the three core business processes of people, strategy, and operations. Both Bossidy, CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., and Charan, advisor to corporate executives and author of such books as What the CEO Wants You to Know and Boards That Work, present experience-tested insight into how the smooth linking of these three processes can differentiate one company from the rest. Developing the discipline of execution isn't made out to be simple, nor is this book a quick, easy read. Bossidy and Charan do, however, offer good advice on a neglected topic, making Execution a smart business leader's guide to enacting success rather than permitting demise. --S. Ketchum

From Library Journal

Bossidy, an award-winning executive at General Electric and Allied Signal, came out of retirement to tend to Honeywell (and bring it back to prominence) after it failed to merge with General Electric. Charan has taught at Harvard and Kellogg Business Schools. Collaborating with editor and writer Burck, they present the viewpoint that execution (that is, linking a company's people, strategy, and operations) is what will determine success in today's business world. Bossidy and Charan aver that execution is a discipline integral to strategy, that it is the major job of any business leader hoping not just to be a success but to dominate a market, and that it is a core element of corporate culture. Details of both successful and unsuccessful executions at corporations such as Dell, Johnson & Johnson, and Xerox, to name a few, support not only their how-to method for bringing execution to the forefront but also the need for it. Each author addresses specific topics in paragraphs that begin with either "Larry" or "Ram," and this easy style adds to the appeal of a very readable book. Recommended for academic and public libraries.Steven J. Mayover, PhiladelphiaCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a very educational and well written book, but it is extremely dry. The first parts can easily be applied to any and every business,. The last part was my difficult for me to relate to as a retail associate.

It's good book for executive leadership. If you are self-employed, it's a bit over your head with all its metrics and quantitative information. It's not practical for the everyday small business owner such as a landscaper, tutor, realtor, or scamway rep.

The primary value of this book is its emphasis on "management" as being the primary focus of successful business leaders. Far too many business books talk in flowery terms about strategy and enablement, and relegate the management function of execution to lower ranks than those occupied by their enlightened readers.This book has its priorities right and for that reason can be recommended to those who wish to make a difference. A criticism might be that the advice given requires considerably less than the 278 pages devoted to it.... and what is that advice?Primarily, of course, it is to focus on accomplishing one's objectives rather than trumpeting them. Seemingly obvious but the fog of emotional involvement in difficult and fast-paced business situations can make even the most experienced and level-headed business leaders lose their bearings. And, of course, there's always hubris.1. Know your business, internally and externally, in detail2. Know your people intimately3. Make your objectives clear, few, simple and realistic4. Reward achievement of the explicit objectives and no others5. Know yourself and subordinate your ego; eat your own cooking6. Good people are everything

This book is about the primal ingredient of success: execution. Larry and Ram put the essentials together, and they are not from another world. Today's managers are so in love with strategy that most times they forget how to put it in practice. This book will guide you through the messy and turbulent stages of actually making it happen. A insightful lecture. Sadly, in Latin America, they have put out a translated version that is simply not executable (sorry for the pun). They translated verbally, instead of making sense of the text in another cultural context. So sorry for the content that is so important (just consider the gap between what Latin leaders say and what they produce).